Hachiman Hikigaya, who returned from his studies after completing his training.

The large screen in the center of the room was playing a well-known duet song, but it wasn't a love song; instead, it was about brotherhood.

It's the end credits song of a gangster movie, and it's the kind of song that's high-energy and exciting.

"You've got some wild ideas, Himeno," Hikigaya teased, surprised that Himeno would sing such an out-of-place song for her very first song.

"I want you to manage."

By swinging his thigh, Himeno's knee slammed into Hachiman's, a sign of his displeasure.

The students in Class B would never sing this kind of song and then hit someone like you. I hereby declare you expelled from Class B.

After silently complaining to himself, Hachiman took the microphone. The intro to the song had finished playing on the screen, and the scoring system was clearly visible below the lyrics.

The last song he sang with Shiina last time only lasted about 60 minutes.

"Can we turn off the rating system?"

"Do not."

Hikigaya asked a question quickly, and Himeno answered just as quickly. Then she started singing, her clear and slightly heroic voice blending beautifully with the accompaniment in the room.

What's the difference between you and a top student saying they bombed the exam only to find out they got 99 points, Hime?

Looking at the score of over ninety points, Hachiman knew that it would be halved when he sang.

Chapter 120 The Traitor of Class C

"His voice is pretty good, so why can't he keep up with the beat?"

Half an hour later, Himeko put on a relaxed expression, while Hikigaya put on a mask of pain.

He tried so hard, but his score was only half that of Ji Ye.

"Ma Zi is urging me to go back now. Do you want to stay here and keep practicing so you can get a score of 60 next time?"

"Who would sing karaoke alone? My level of loneliness only allows me to go to the movies alone."

Imagine singing alone in a private room. It gives me goosebumps. I guess only a maverick like Koenji would do something like that.

"..." Hime looked at him speechlessly.

"Don't stay silent, now's not the time to complain!"

"It turns out to be a fake."

"It's true." Hachiman really went to the movies alone, and more than once.

"You are really strong."

"........."

Now it was Hikigaya's turn to be speechless. He paused and added interjections. Did Himeno think that going to the movies alone was such a powerful talent?

After waving for Hime to leave, a few minutes later Hikigaya also left the private room and went to the 24-hour lounge to wait for the distinguished guest.

One of the three had arranged to meet at 2 a.m., and he didn't plan to go back to sleep for two hours before making the trip.

..........

At 2 a.m.,

The door to the lounge was gently pushed open, and Hikigaya's alarm clock vibrated, waking him up from his drowsy nap.

"Please come in."

Hachiman yawned, wiped his eyes with his sleeve, and sized up the girl who pushed open the door.

Three people anonymously arranged to meet him, and there were only three privileged students in a class. Without much thought, Hikigaya knew that at least one of them was not a student from Class A. He didn't expect that the first person he met was not one of them.

"Is this Kinoshita Minori? Good evening."

Her black ponytail, just past her shoulders, framed a cute face with a touch of masculinity, framed by wispy bangs on either side.

Judging from the high-quality fabric, the form-fitting sportswear accentuates her sleek and toned physique. Judging from the curves of her muscles, Kinoshita truly deserves her reputation as a champion in the sports club.

Hikigaya remembers that during the sports festival, her speed was no slower than Horikita Suzune's, and was even faster.

"Good evening, Hikigaya-kun." Kinoshita's mouth agape slightly, as if surprised that he would greet her.

What's so surprising about me saying hello? Do you think I'm Long Yuan from your class?

After gesturing for Kinoshita to sit in the seat in front of him, Hikigaya casually stared into her eyes.

"I bought the Class A VIP membership because I wanted to undermine Class A, so I spent five million personal points. The Class C VIP membership is less valuable to me; I can only give it a maximum of three million personal points."

As he said, his initial intention was to have traitors emerge from Class A and further divide the class, which is why he set such an exorbitant price that he now regrets. The preferential treatment for Class C can only be used to deduce the selection patterns of the preferential treatment recipients and the fifty class points.

C-class spies have already boarded his pirate ship, and Kinoshita is not of much value to him.

“Three million is fine too.” Kinoshita didn’t hesitate at all. Before coming, she thought that Hachiman must have a grudge against the people in Class A to ask for such a high price. She was already very satisfied with three million personal points.

"Show me on your phone now?"

"No need to rush, Kinoshita-kun, there's still one person who hasn't arrived yet."

"Will someone else come? Could it be Ryuen-kun?" Kinoshita broke out in a cold sweat. She wondered if Hikigaya would call Ryuen to deal with her. She could ask for a few less personal points.

"It's a tea pillar. We need to sign a contract first so I can ensure your status as a privileged individual."

The SIM card can be changed, and the software and private text messages inside can be forged. You can't determine who owns the phone just by receiving a special email.

Therefore, unless the selection pattern of the preferential treatment recipients is deduced, Hikigaya will not easily let the students of Class D fill in the text messages about who the preferential treatment recipients are and send them to the school.

“Three million personal points is no small amount. If you are not the beneficiary, then I have been scammed. The last senior in this school who scammed students' personal points has already been expelled. Do you still want to continue trading with me, Kinoshita?”

"Does Chabashira-sensei tell Sakagami-sensei that Sakagami-sensei values ​​Ryuen-kun more, and that he pretends not to see when Ryuen bullies students in Class C?"

"I can only say that it is very unlikely, because it violates school rules, and teachers are not allowed to intervene in fights between students."

With the examples of Hoshinomiya and Chabashira, Hikigaya couldn't offer any guarantees regarding Kinoshita's concerns.

If Chabashira suddenly falls for the homeroom teacher of Class C and makes a stupid decision, it wouldn't surprise Hachiman.

"I... choose to continue trading."

After a moment's hesitation, Kinoshita gave his reply.

Shortly after receiving the reply, Chazuki, with a smile on his face, pushed open the door to the lounge and walked in.

So what if she gets up at 2 a.m. to do errands? As long as Hikigaya can contribute to the class and lead it forward, Chabashira said she wouldn't mind working all night.

"You must be Kinoshita-san. I'm here to notarize your contract."

"Yes, thank you for your help, Chabashira-sensei." Kinoshita stood up, bowed slightly to Chabashira-sensei, and gave her the treatment a teacher should receive.

"Now that the tea stalk is here, let's begin. Kinoshita, just answer my questions directly."

"Yes, Hachiman Hikigaya."

Although Kinoshita was puzzled by Hikigaya's continued sitting without greeting his homeroom teacher and his impolite way of addressing him, he was more focused on closing the deal and getting three million personal points as soon as possible.

That's equivalent to three million personal points, which is three million yen. During junior high school, her monthly allowance was less than half of three thousand yen. Three million is a thousand times three thousand.

When she first entered the school, she thought she had entered paradise. She used 100,000 personal points to go on a shopping spree at the Beech Tree Entertainment Center. Then, in less than a month, Longyuan took half of it as class funds, and she didn't dare not pay back.

She hesitated for less than half an hour about betraying her class because she really wanted that beautiful designer bag that the Beech Tree Fashion Store had just received, but the price made her hesitate.

"When you receive the preferential treatment email at the start of the exam, your phone is still in your hand."

"Yes, it's always been in my possession."

"You are a special recipient of the Sheep Group."

"Yes, I am a privileged member of the Sheep Group."

"If you voluntarily give me your phone to view your privileged emails, I will pay you three million personal credits."

"Yes, I volunteer..."

After checking the preferential treatment text message on his phone, Hachiman confirmed that she was indeed the preferential treatment recipient from Class C, Sheep Group.

Class C would trade a star athlete for three million personal points from Class D. Ryuen wouldn't make such a losing proposition, and Kinoshita doesn't seem like the type to drop out for the sake of the class.

Chapter 121 Shiina's Great Contributor

[There is a mole, terminate the transaction! 】

After completing the transaction with Kinoshita, Hikigaya sent text messages to two other anonymous contacts to cancel the transaction.

Because he suspected that the latter two traders, especially the one who traded around midnight, might be Katsuragi, he didn't intend to reveal that he had successfully traded a favored person's name, which is why he sent this somewhat inexplicable text message.

I examine myself three times a day; the Karuizawa incident has already taught him a lesson.

If Katsuragi suddenly realized that the situation was hopeless and directly made a huge sacrifice by giving the names of the three privileged individuals to Class C for cooperation, he would be furious, although the possibility of this is very small.

The preferential treatment exam starts at 8:00 AM on the second day.

A group of students had gathered in front of the whiteboard in Hachiman's room, which was covered with their names, each holding a notebook and writing and drawing to deduce the patterns of preferential treatment.

"Morishita-kun is probably not."

"Then let's try changing the name to Katsuragi."

Hikigaya, who was standing behind Shiina and eating bread for breakfast, responded to Shiina's suggestion.

There were only two movable stools in the room, where Wang Meiyu and Shiina, who weren't very strong, were sitting. Horikita Suzune, who had an A-level stamina, stood on either side of Hikigaya with Hirata, while Koenji was doing his morning hand-to-hand training on the side.

With three people from Class D, plus one person from Class B, Class C, and Class VVI, there are already five confirmed preferential treatment slots. Now, the process involves adding the names of the three members of the Dragon Group one by one to deduce the pattern.

We've been calculating using Morishita's name as the starting point for almost an hour. Now let's try Katsuragi's name, or if that doesn't work, Sanada's.

"Hachiman, I think I've figured out the pattern."

Ten minutes after changing the name to Katsuragi, Shiina's surprised voice rang out in the room. Wang Meiyu, who was sitting next to Shiina, immediately leaned over to look at the notebook in Shiina's hand.

"The Japanese syllabary?" Even Wang Meiyu, an international student, recognized what was written in Shiina's notebook.

"Specifically, it's the order of the hiragana characters; I've also tried matching the katakana characters, but they don't match up."

Shiina stood up, walked to the whiteboard, and wrote the order of the fifty sounds of the hiragana in a blank corner. There were eleven lines and fifty-one characters in total, which was the proper hiragana table from the textbook.

His handwriting reflects his personality; it is elegant and lively.

“Each group has a maximum of fourteen students, so I divided the fifty kana into fourteen rows based on this number.” As she spoke, Shiina erased the five kana in the first row and rewrote them in vertical order.

In this way, the Japanese syllabary on the whiteboard becomes fourteen lines, with only one kana in the first five lines.

"Then the following order should follow the pattern of the twelve zodiac animals, corresponding to twelve groups," Hachiman interjected.

Although the Dragon Group had the highest exam room number, they were only fifth in terms of the Chinese zodiac, and Ichinose and others' hiragana names were listed before Katsuragi's.

After mentally reviewing the order of all the students' hiragana names in the Japanese syllabary written by Shiina, and discovering that Katsuragi was exactly fifth, Hikigaya understood the pattern in the selection of the privileged individuals.

"Sheep group, Kinoshita... The group is ranked eighth in the hiragana list, and the sheep is the eighth in the twelve zodiac animals."

"The Rabbit Group, Karuizawa... the group ranks fourth in the hiragana list, and the Rabbit is also fourth in the Chinese zodiac."

"It matches! It all matches, Hirata-kun." Wang Meiyu clapped her hands happily after verifying the information, and Hirata smiled back.

After all six names were successfully deciphered using the patterns revealed by Shiina, the atmosphere in the room became relaxed and pleasant, no longer tense as before.

"Hiyori, thanks to you this time, you're amazing." Looking at Shiina's cute smile, Hikigaya couldn't help but smile too.

Although he felt that the preferential treatment rule was nothing special after discovering it, he knew that if it weren't for Shiina's stroke of genius in turning the hiragana table into a fourteen-line table, they would probably have had to search for this rule for a long time.

Just like the little story of Columbus standing an egg upright, the method is that simple, but most people unconsciously overlook it.

"Then how will you reward me, Hachiman?"

While the others were immersed in joy, Shiina pulled Hikigaya aside, a little distance away from Horikita and the others, her large purple eyes curving into crescent shapes as she looked very happy.

She felt that she could finally help Hachiman. Although Hachiman told her not to worry about it, she still had some hope in her heart.

How will you be rewarded?

While pondering what Shiina liked and wanted, Hikigaya placed his hand on Shiina's head, which was leaning forward, and gently stroked it. The familiar feel of his hand made him reluctant to let go.

Simply telling Shiina what she wants and offering to buy it seems a bit perfunctory, while giving her a book feels too conventional and lacks any surprise.

It was rare for Shiina to ask him for a reward, and he sincerely wanted Shiina to be satisfied with his gift.

"Shouldn't we call over one member of each group of the students in classes A and C who are considered to have preferential treatment as soon as possible to finish the exams for those groups?"

As Shiina's brow furrowed slightly, Horikita approached directly, urging Hikigaya to secure the prize. His gaze shifted subtly as he gently stroked Shiina's head with his large hand.